Iced coffee.
Girls and I wake up and shake it over to the Oak Park farmer's market.
Catch some folk music at the circle. Donuts were had. Cpu and Bpu hit
the OPRF book sale. Ipu and I walk back alone and have a chat. She is
chatty these days. Can't figure out what she's saying though. Text
messages start to arrive from yesterday. Ironic, considering that
AT&T, my provider, is co-sponsoring Lolla along with Budweiser. Bad
press certainly to follow.
Put the baby down for a nap and take
care of the house. Bpu arrives. Debating, I pack forbidden foods into
her transparent pink Schwinn backpack and put the refilled, non-factory
sealed, 0.75 liter water bottles in mine. Hand sanitizer (no soap
yesterday at the bathrooms) and sun screen. Grab an umbrella stroller
and split. Text Ian that we have left. We have a great trip on the
green line. She asks me if 333 Wacker is a sky scraper. From the El, it
certainly seems like it is. It's probably not higher than 30 floors
though.
Bag inspection, as dreaded as it is, takes no time at all. All items pass. Worship the Buckingham fountain, drink some water, ask info where the kids' area is. Get Bpu tagged in case she should get lost. Text Ian that we have arrived. Get Bpu squirted by the squirtgun crew, and check out the hip hop booth.
Bpu loves hip hop. The rhyming, the fronting. But she won't step up to the mic. If she had, they would have presented us with a CD, and send us on to make an album cover. Kickass. I apply sun screen.
We head over to the hair people. There are 4 folding chairs, a herd of adults and children waiting for styles and color. We park it in front of the crying Chinese kid and await our turn. Bpu gets a bobby-pinned flip with pink hair color spray.
Ian finds us! We head over towards the stage where Jill is, make plans for Cpu's later arrival. Black Joe is loading up at 7:00 to play another venue, so we agree to meet at the fountain at 6:00. And then I turn to find Bpu in line for double-dutch jump roping. Which becomes her jumping in place, us jumping together, and eventually jump roping ends without us. Which is ok because I spin us both dizzy anyways.
End up back at the Small Paul booth, where we get a kid's canvas tote silk screened. Bpu asks how they get the Chicken on there, and the friendly staffer clarifies how screen printing transfers the ink onto the bag. No, she says. How did they get the image of the chicken onto the screen? To which he patiently replys all about applying emulsion and burning the image in. We move the bag to the drying clothes line, and proceed to watch more hip hop. Someone hands us some bubbles, which will come in handy later.
Ah! It's only 4:15, but the kids area is totally shutting down. There is soon nothing to do, and about 2 more hours to go. I take Bpu for a strawberry ice cream cone, and we sit at a shady picnic table.
"Daddy," she begins, "Lollapalooza is a little bit boring."
"What do you mean, honey?"
"I expected that at the end of the show, the band would throw candy to all the children."
Of course. No candy. She goes on to explain that she spent all day yesterday pretending to be at the show, throwing candy to herself. Awesome! How could they compete? I let her know that I will certainly bring that up to someone at the kids' area.
Repeat squirting at squirtgun station. We are somewhat refreshed. Go get in line at the drinking fountains. Bpu helps fill one bottle. Bpu drinks and pours water on herself while I laugh. Bystanders are amused. I calmly chew her out and send her to fill another bottle. She flirts with others.
Equipped with water, I redo the sun screen. We find a DJ doing a set at BMI stage, and Bpu starts to dance. I move us into the shade of a tent. Bpu grabs crotch, a sure sign of needing to use the potty. Awesome. I head us to the huge lines of concert goers (pun intended) waiting for a free National portapotty. Awesome I think, National is playing later.
Oh, the wait. And when we get in, there's no paper and the last lady was a squatter, so the seat's totally soaked. I find paper on the floor, wipe the seat, and end up holding Bpu over the rim so she can pee and poop without touching anything. That's love. Bpu asks about wiping because her business (lady business) is still wet. Sorry, baby.
We exit, sanitize, and go back to the DJ. Blow bubbles, apply stickers to the Small Paul poster, spin, dance, and more bubbles, all the way to 6:00. Whew! Burned out, we hit the fountain. Jill and Ian are already there, and soon Cpu is late. Can't call, the lines are busy.
It turns out, she's not late: the Lolla employees were arguing with her about whether or not she could meet us at the fountain. Apparently, the employees did not realize that if you went through the giant Lolla gate, 1/4 of the fountain was open to the public. Which was where we were. Eventually she found us, and I wrangled Ipu and Bpu while she chatted.
After 6:45, we left the grounds together. Kids split a Dunkin Donuts mini pizza, and we ride the El again, exhausted. Ipu refuses to sit in my lap, since I don't have a window seat. She also refuses to sit with Cpu. I hate my life for another 20 minutes. And realize there's no way I'm going back for Wilco or RATM. Too tard to rock.
Bag inspection, as dreaded as it is, takes no time at all. All items pass. Worship the Buckingham fountain, drink some water, ask info where the kids' area is. Get Bpu tagged in case she should get lost. Text Ian that we have arrived. Get Bpu squirted by the squirtgun crew, and check out the hip hop booth.
Bpu loves hip hop. The rhyming, the fronting. But she won't step up to the mic. If she had, they would have presented us with a CD, and send us on to make an album cover. Kickass. I apply sun screen.
We head over to the hair people. There are 4 folding chairs, a herd of adults and children waiting for styles and color. We park it in front of the crying Chinese kid and await our turn. Bpu gets a bobby-pinned flip with pink hair color spray.
Ian finds us! We head over towards the stage where Jill is, make plans for Cpu's later arrival. Black Joe is loading up at 7:00 to play another venue, so we agree to meet at the fountain at 6:00. And then I turn to find Bpu in line for double-dutch jump roping. Which becomes her jumping in place, us jumping together, and eventually jump roping ends without us. Which is ok because I spin us both dizzy anyways.
End up back at the Small Paul booth, where we get a kid's canvas tote silk screened. Bpu asks how they get the Chicken on there, and the friendly staffer clarifies how screen printing transfers the ink onto the bag. No, she says. How did they get the image of the chicken onto the screen? To which he patiently replys all about applying emulsion and burning the image in. We move the bag to the drying clothes line, and proceed to watch more hip hop. Someone hands us some bubbles, which will come in handy later.
Ah! It's only 4:15, but the kids area is totally shutting down. There is soon nothing to do, and about 2 more hours to go. I take Bpu for a strawberry ice cream cone, and we sit at a shady picnic table.
"Daddy," she begins, "Lollapalooza is a little bit boring."
"What do you mean, honey?"
"I expected that at the end of the show, the band would throw candy to all the children."
Of course. No candy. She goes on to explain that she spent all day yesterday pretending to be at the show, throwing candy to herself. Awesome! How could they compete? I let her know that I will certainly bring that up to someone at the kids' area.
Repeat squirting at squirtgun station. We are somewhat refreshed. Go get in line at the drinking fountains. Bpu helps fill one bottle. Bpu drinks and pours water on herself while I laugh. Bystanders are amused. I calmly chew her out and send her to fill another bottle. She flirts with others.
Equipped with water, I redo the sun screen. We find a DJ doing a set at BMI stage, and Bpu starts to dance. I move us into the shade of a tent. Bpu grabs crotch, a sure sign of needing to use the potty. Awesome. I head us to the huge lines of concert goers (pun intended) waiting for a free National portapotty. Awesome I think, National is playing later.
Oh, the wait. And when we get in, there's no paper and the last lady was a squatter, so the seat's totally soaked. I find paper on the floor, wipe the seat, and end up holding Bpu over the rim so she can pee and poop without touching anything. That's love. Bpu asks about wiping because her business (lady business) is still wet. Sorry, baby.
We exit, sanitize, and go back to the DJ. Blow bubbles, apply stickers to the Small Paul poster, spin, dance, and more bubbles, all the way to 6:00. Whew! Burned out, we hit the fountain. Jill and Ian are already there, and soon Cpu is late. Can't call, the lines are busy.
It turns out, she's not late: the Lolla employees were arguing with her about whether or not she could meet us at the fountain. Apparently, the employees did not realize that if you went through the giant Lolla gate, 1/4 of the fountain was open to the public. Which was where we were. Eventually she found us, and I wrangled Ipu and Bpu while she chatted.
After 6:45, we left the grounds together. Kids split a Dunkin Donuts mini pizza, and we ride the El again, exhausted. Ipu refuses to sit in my lap, since I don't have a window seat. She also refuses to sit with Cpu. I hate my life for another 20 minutes. And realize there's no way I'm going back for Wilco or RATM. Too tard to rock.
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